9GAG on This

For producers of “clickbait,”Reddit – the self-titled “front page of the Internet” and 27th most popular website in the world – is a treasure trove of copy-and-paste-friendly content.

Without getting swamped by copyright issues, the reason clickbait websites such as 9GAG presume to be able to borrow content from Reddit without permission is that the content on Reddit is a. user-generated and b. often consists of little more than a photo-with-caption.

If the purpose of “clickbait” is to get clicks, lifting content from Reddit is a quick and inexpensive way of doing so. A caveat: if you’re not clever enough to produce your own content, at least make sure you can distinguish actual content from automated gibberish.